alfred hitchcock

The distinguished actor and television leading man, John Forsythe, passed away yesterday at his home in Santa Ynez, California, following a year-long battle with cancer. According to his publicist, Harlon Boll, the 92-year-old actor succumbed to complications of pneumonia.

John Forsythe is best known for two iconic roles on television, only one of which included his appearance. On 'Charlie's Angels,' the hit ABC jiggle-cop show of the 1970s, Forsythe was the voice of Charlie Townsend, the man who hired Kelly, Sabrina and Jill as investigators in the Townsend detective agency.

Today is the birthday of suspense and horror master Alfred Hitchcock, born August 13, 1899. You can do the math and guess that he's no longer with us, but he left an incredible body of work. In his honor, here's the very first episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, from October 2, 1955. It stars Ralph Meeker and Vera Miles and was directed by Hitchcock himself.

In 1958, Alfred Hitchcock went on his TV show and asked viewers who were watching the show in the year 2000 to write in and let him know how things are going. Not sure if Hitchcock thought he'd be alive 42 years later, but it's an interesting clip (and kudos for Hitchcock for actually assuming that this show would be watched decades later).

Conan O'Brien should have jumped on this for his bit, but now they've gone and changed the name of it.

I love seeing celebrities dressed up for Halloween. Some of them go all out and look rather crazy. A lot of celebs don't wear anything because they don't want to mess up their hair or be caught dead in anything but Prada. Once in a while a celeb that doesn't go the costume route will put on a mask, like Elvis Presley in this photo. It's one of many photos that The Daily Beast has in a new Halloween gallery.

Alfred Hitchcock doesn't really have a costume, more like a prop. You can almost hear what he said to the crew. Look, I'll stand behind this atrocious pumpkin structure and hold a broom, but I am not going to wear a costume.

Looks like it was shot on the set of Alfred Hitchcock Presents maybe (it was 1958)?

Apparently, someone had some free time on his or her hands and used it to post various stills from The Simpsons episodes which mimic various famous movie or television scenes. Considering that the show has been around for almost 20 years, it's certainly had time to get such pastiche correct.

These stills seem to originate from earlier episodes, back when the naysayers would say the show was good. I admit I don't recognize every Simpsons episode in the list (or for that matter every movie still in the list), but it's easy to tell that the writers and animators were trying to reference the original movie or show for satire's sake.

You probably remember the classic Sesame Street album Sesame Street Fever (on the right), a takeoff on the movie soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever and the disco craze in general. The producer of that best-selling album died of bladder cancer on Monday in New York City.

Arthur Shimkin also produced the Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer album sung by Jimmy Durante and came up with the idea that spawned Little Golden Records, which included such artists as Bing Crosby, Alfred Hitchcock, Roy Rogers, and Burl Ives. He also produced the 1961 version of Peter and the Wolf, with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. I remember that album really well. When I was in fourth or fifth grade, if you finished your work in class early, you got to go over to the corner of the room, sit in a comfy chair, and listen to albums on headphones, and that was one I listened to over and over again.

The obit says that Shimkin produced over 3000 records, and that is quite an achievement.

Slate was known for his movie roles in Girls! Girls! Girls!, Lawnmower Man, and Hell's Angels '69, but he was even more known for the massive amount of work he did on the small screen, starting in the late '50s. Slate was a regular on the 1960 series The Aquanauts, and had guest roles on many shows, including Route 66, Perry Mason, Dr. Kildare, Naked City, Have Gun, Will Travel, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Mr. Lucky, The Untouchables, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Bewitched, Combat, Tarzan, Bonanza, Ironside, Mission: Impossible, Mannix, Wonder Woman, The Wonderful World of Disney, and many others. Most recently he guest-starred on an episode of My Name Is Earl.

I remember him most from his two soap roles: he played Chuck Wilson, Asa's assistant, on One Life To Live for many years, and had a short-lived role as songwriter Locke Walls on Guiding Light in the mid-80s (he was involved with Alexandra Spaulding and her son Nick, if I'm not mistaken).

I miss Dick Cavett's talk show. In fact, I miss Dick Cavett's type of talk show on television. Charlie Rose comes close I guess, with the spare set and the serious devotion to subjects, but it's not the same. Luckily, Cavett is coming back to television (sort of), on Turner Classic Movies.

The movie network is going to run eight classic episodes of Dick Cavett's 70's show throughout the fall. The shows will run every Thursday night, as part of a theme night about a certain star or director. The first episode will air on September 7 and will include a brand new interview Cavett has with Mel Brooks. Later Thursdays will have classic interviews with people such as Katherine Hepburn, Groucho Marx, Robert Mitchum, Alfred Hitchcock, Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman, and Bette Davis.

Anthony Lapaglia's Jack gets some action on
Without A Trace, as he strikes up a romance with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Lapaglia says that the two are
at "a hot dog stand" and he "plants a big one on her." I'm assuming that means a kiss, and
"hot dog stand" isn't a euphamism for something else.

Matt Roush reviews the controversial new series The Book
Of Daniel (he also likes the season opener of Battlestar Galactica but calls Four Kings
"a generic dud.")

Did Alfred Hitchcock actually work on his TV show or just host it? Who used to pitch Paul Masson wines on TV?
And what's the deal with Snuffleupagus? The Televisionary knows
all.

In the print edition: a Q and A with Jill Hennessey, a behind the scenes look at the Cold Case
Sprinsteen episode, and a guest column from designer Isaac Mizrahi.